And it's not just No Parking, it's No Stopping...so you can't stop to read the sign and figure out if you can stop or not.

Brilliant!

Posted by: Hoki at September 7, 2005 02:42 AM

Truly a work of genius. They should win an award. I bet parking ticket revenues are up!

Posted by: J. Scott at September 7, 2005 04:54 AM

"And it's not just No Parking, it's No Stopping"

Actually, it's 'NO tow away' and 'stopping' during those hours. The sign is telling you what times you CAN stop, and when they WON'T tow!

Posted by: DaveC426913 at September 7, 2005 09:34 AM

You see what happens when you have to spell everything out for someone lest they complain or sue? Instead of people using their head, we get to see complicated and ridiculous signs such as this because, they "didn't knooooooooow!"

And on certain days, you get a 10% discount on the parking ticket, but only if the date is divisible by two. And if it's not a leap year. And the ticket has to be more than a $100 value. Unless you're a senior or there is a child seat in the car, in which case...

I think the idea is more broken than the sign - why be so specific about the dates? I can see that the black dates are one time and the white dates are another time, but there is no consistency for the dates themselves.

Posted by: Michael at September 7, 2005 01:10 PM

The dates and times are for the scheduled street cleaning. If your vehicle is in the way it will be towed. Then there is a number to call if it is towed.

Wouldn't it be a better idea to use an electronic sign that would read "street cleaning NO Parking/stopping today 1pm-6pm violators will be towed." on the subsequent days?

Posted by: tool at September 7, 2005 01:21 PM

Broken beyond words, just like the previous SF street sign. They must have an evil genius Catbert type designing their signs.

BTW, DaveC, nice theory... of course there is no way to verify one way or the other by looking at the sign... (Catbert: heh-heh...)

Posted by: Pat at September 7, 2005 02:04 PM

This is a totally stupid sign. Why do broken traffic signs all seem to come from San Fran?

This is Broken unless the city was sued before this sign was put up over someone being towed, but only if that person didn't know that they would be towed and they were towed because the information the complicated sign that inspired this post was trying to convey wasn't available to them. However, the judge may have been an idiot, in which case the sign is Broken regardless except for if Catbert appointed the judge in anticipation of a chance to create this sign, in which case the creator of Dilbert should be exiled.

Those must be some skillful tow truck operators to be able to tow away your car if you stop for more than a couple seconds.

Why on earth would you put a calender on a street sign? Why not schedule street sweeping one day every week.

Then replace the sign with "NO parking on Sundays from 1PM-6PM. Violators will be towed".

Posted by: asdfsdfsa at September 7, 2005 09:44 PM

signs are becoming increasingly verbose and yet patience of those behind cars stopped on busy streets are becoming increasingly short. I work in SF and a parking garage just opened near where I work. They put a sign advertising it in front of our building and folks are trying to park in our little two car garage now. I told the fellow who wheels out the sign in the morning and he replied "I guess they can't read then." Who has time in morning traffic??

Posted by: kenr61 at September 8, 2005 12:41 PM

asdfsdfsa: "Those must be some skillful tow truck operators to be able to tow away your car if you stop for more than a couple seconds."

Why are SF street signs messed up?! Are you serious? Can you say "marijuana and hippies"?

Posted by: Bill at September 30, 2005 05:58 AM

What's broken then are the companies who hire the aforementioned druggies and hippies. Maby they should require their job applicants to pass a test, "What is 2+2?"

Posted by: Bedlamite at December 8, 2005 05:14 PM

Hey... I know why the sign is designed like that: The sign is so complicated, you have to stop to read it, during which time, a highly skilled tow truck operator will tow your car away because you stopped, violating traffic bylaws.

Posted by: Alex at January 23, 2006 08:42 PM

I also don't like how a lot of signs put things in singular, owever it should be plural. It says "on date below" NO, it should say, "on dates below"